A thoughtful account of the divide between faith and science coupled with shopworn self-help counsel.
A practical guidebook for scientists interested in reconciling their spiritual lives with a modern conception of reason.
Debut author Hamer says that he’s experienced the tension between science and religion in a deeply personal way. After finishing a graduate degree in electrical engineering, he says, he confronted the fact that his technical training inadequately prepared him for how to live a meaningful life, particularly as a husband and father. He concedes that science and spirituality aren’t perfectly compatible—they’re not only driven by different methods of investigation, but also use different language and conceptual architecture—but he asserts that they do share common ground. Most crucially, he says, both spring from the experience of wonder and awe at the vast universe—and even the magic of its inscrutability: “Science and spirituality can share a common quest for a deeper experience of mystery.” In this book, Hamer provides an accessible, synoptic history of the modern scientific revolution and argues that the turf war between religion and science isn’t an essential part of it; along the way he offers an especially intriguing account of Galileo’s conflict with religious authorities. Nevertheless, he insists that modern science can’t capture the fullness of human life—love, beauty, the profound experience of transcendence, and purposeful meaning. The author recommends that readers find a spiritual practice and provides practical, largely nonsectarian advice about how to find one. This book’s orientation is predominately pragmatic; Hamer ends some chapters with relevant exercises, as a workbook would. His prose is refreshingly clear and never burdened with gratuitous jargon, and he displays deep respect for the claims of both science and religion. That said, this isn’t an exceedingly rigorous contribution to the debate—although, in the author’s defense, he does warn readers that he won’t detail the “minute, intricate nuances of an issue.” Also, the discussion of spirituality in practice can be vague, and the exercises often seem similar to those in a 12-step program; for example, the value of repeating “I am loved” remains unclear.
A thoughtful account of the divide between faith and science coupled with shopworn self-help counsel.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-92192-0
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Logos Today
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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